"Slumdog" Wins 4 Golden Globes

Film Nabs Best Motion Picture - Drama, Director, Screenplay & Musical Score

(AP)  "Slumdog Millionaire" was the big winner with four prizes at Sunday's Golden Globes. It won best motion picture - drama, best screenplay, and best musical score, along with a best director award for Danny Boyle.

"Golden Globes, or the GGs as we very affectionately refer to them - your mad, pulsating affection for our film is much appreciated. Really, deeply appreciated," Boyle said.

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Photos: Golden Globes Winners

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"Slumdog Millionaire," an underdog story some awards watchers think could become an Oscar favorite, features a generally unknown cast in the story of an orphan boy in Mumbai who rises from terrible hardship to become a champ on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," all the while trying to reunite with a lost love from his childhood.

"We really weren't expecting to be here in America at all at one time, so it's just amazing to be here," said Simon Beaufoy, whose winning script was adapted from Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A."

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Photos: Golden Globe Couples

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The late Heath Ledger won a Golden Globe award for his supporting role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight."

Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose in New York almost one year ago. The movie was released in May.

Kate Winslet won the supporting-actress Golden Globe for "The Reader," in which she plays a former Nazi concentration camp guard in a romantic fling with a teenager.

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Photos: Golden Globe Arrivals

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Winslet also won best dramatic actress at the Globes with the domestic drama "Revolutionary Road."

These wins could boost Winslet's prospects for the same prize at the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 22. Winslet has been nominated five times at the Oscars but has yet to win.

"You have to forgive me because I have a habit of not winning things," Winslet said as she opened what she acknowledged was a long acceptance speech.

"Sorry this is going on a bit, but I'm going to make the most of it," she said amid thanking everyone from her children to the film's makeup artists.

Taking the stage for the second time Sunday night to accept the prize for best actress, Winslet acknowledged her estimable competitors, who included Meryl Streep ("Doubt"), Kristen Scott Thomas ("I've Loved You So Long") and Angelina Jolie ("Changeling").

"Meryl, Kristen, oh God, who's the other one? Angelina! Forgive me. ... Is this really happening? Thank you so much," she said, practically panting with emotion.

She then went on to thank "two incredible men, who are such special people in my world." One of them was her "Revolutionary Road" and "Titanic" co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio: "I've loved you for 13 years and your performance in this film is nothing short of spectacular."

Winslet then acknowledged her husband, Sam Mendes, who directed her for the first time in "Revolutionary Road": "Thank you for directing this film, babe, and thank you for killing us every single day and really enjoying us actually being in such horrific pain."

Bruce Springsteen won the best song prize for the title track to "The Wrestler."

"This is the only time I'm going to be in competition with Clint Eastwood," said Springsteen, referring to the filmmaker who had a song nomination for writing the title tune to his "Gran Torino." "It felt pretty good, too."

A year ago, Hollywood labor strife shut down the Globes, but organizers promised their show would be back, bigger and better than ever.

A looser, more relaxed affair than the Oscars, the Globes are a televised dinner party where Hollywood's elite share a meal and drinks, sometimes cutting loose with unexpected antics (this is the place Jack Nicholson once mooned the crowd for a laugh). The tables were decorated with white lilies and roses; oversized bottles of champagne awaited guests.


"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Doubt" and "Frost/Nixon" went into the evening as front runners with five nominations each.

Last year's Globe show was scrapped after stars said they would stay away in honor of picket lines by the Writers Guild of America, which was engaged in a bitter strike against producers. In its place was a briskly paced news conference where winners were announced from a podium.

One of 2008's scheduled honorees finally will get his prize. Globe organizers had intended to present Steven Spielberg with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, but the strike delayed it a year.

The Globes serve as a barometer for potential Oscar contenders, often singling out deserving newcomers who might have been overlooked among bigger-name stars. Relative unknown Hilary Swank won for dramatic actress at the Globes for 1999's "Boys Don't Cry," then went on to an upset win at the Oscars over Annette Bening, who had been considered the front-runner for "American Beauty."

The Oscar ceremony comes on Feb. 22.

The Globes are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 90 reporters covering show business for overseas outlets.

[aztecdakota]

Well what can I say. I think Jack Nicholson was the best Joker, he had more "Character". This Dark Knight Joker was just a pyscho, face mask or not, playing in another Batman movie.

[caldwellptr]

Nice to see that Jeremy Piven has recovered from Mercury Poisening to go to the Golden Globes. I hope he is well enough to attend the Tony''s.

[hennighg]

Really. When is this self-congratulatory orgy going to end? Is it with the Oscars? God, it still won''t be soon enough! Ledger won because he died. John Travolta will win something because his son died. And murderers still get off scot-free. When the next celebrity chips a tooth we will hear less about the 2 wars to accommodate the live coverage from the dentist''s office. I could puke.

[rsmik]

Awesome! Angelina gave a big fake smile so nobody would think she hates Anne, Colin totally dissed Ralph and Borat fell flat. Piven was there? What for?

[samthetvcat]

---"One of 2008''s scheduled honorees finally will get his prize. Globe organizers had intended to present Steven Spielberg with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, but the strike delayed it a year."---

Wow, when they were scrolling through his whole body of work, I didn''t realize he had a hand in so many other movies as producer as well. What a phenomenal talent. And a really interesting person.

Congrats to Steven Spielberg! Thanks for making so many great movies!

[samthetvcat]

PS What was with Renee Zelwegger''s dress?

[ustaxpayer]

All of these self absorbed, ego centric, left wing dingbats tell each other how great they are.Who really cares except the weak minded? Get a life you fantasy freaks.

[gronamox-2009]

Heath Ledger was nothing short of amateur and the movie wasn''t short at all. Piven is not the first actor to bail on Broadway, but if Mamet has his way, he will be the last. I can understand Kate Winslet''s wonky memory. I forgot that Angelina Jolie was a human. Could someone settle this argument: my dog thinks Springsteen actually writes music people listen to and I say "no,"no one listens to Springsteen, because the only lyric anyone remembers is BORN IN THE USA which is the title of Matt Damon''s new Bourne sequel. Jack Nicholson is an old man now, and the image of him flashing his naked "whatever" does not conjure daring and hipness- more like the smarmy new Fatty Arbuckle. The globes are so much fun-I can only hope they never happen again or that TV disappears. Cecil B. DeMille had to have been the worst director and the worst person in Hollywood in his day. He made the unforgettable "Jumbo,"he discovered Charlton Heston under a rock and he remembered all if his friends'' names to the House UnAmerican Activites Committee. Does Steven Spielberg deserve an award like that? Even if he did make I.A., he is no CB.

[kittykatty2]

Listen at all the xenophobes on here. Guess what schmucks...ANY movie from overseas is better than American ***. Anything. Americans are so self absorbed it is no wonder they''re in a vat full of ***...you all deserve it. Mememememememememememe.

[avigil2]

It''s too bad that there are so many haters out there of American movies and Hollywood. Do us a favor and just read a book and stay off these websites since they apparently have no interest to you.

Now, onto positive notes. Steve Spielberg''s Cecil B. Demille award was well deserved. He literally has had a handling in the way movies are made technologically (CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, ET, JURASSIC PARK) and released (JAWS released in the summer of 1975 started the "Summer Box Office"). Kudos to a great director that has brought so much joy to everyone on the planet. Kate Winslet is an extraordinary talent. She deserved both awards. Looking forward to checking out SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE; these underdogs certainly deserve a look. And to that moron that claimed that Heath Ledger received his award because he died; he received his award because it was one of the great performances of the year.

[emassey11]

hey kittykat2, why don't you take yourself and whatever piece of the globe you hail from and shove it up your a**.